


the future (doesn't) freak me out

by quibbler



Series: fitzsimmons in the future [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 11:04:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1896663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quibbler/pseuds/quibbler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz is a typical doting dad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the future (doesn't) freak me out

**Author's Note:**

> I suck at titles and I know absolutely nothing about babies. I've googled what I can and am basically keeping my fingers crossed for everything else. _How did this future!verse even become a thing?_
> 
> Something I forgot to note before: each of these fics has moments set in chronological order, but the order of the stories are not in chronological order, if that makes any sense at all.
> 
> I wrote this over a week ago and just got around to posting this. Oops?
> 
> Beta'd by the amazing Océ!

Fitz opens his eyes, blearily looking around the room. He knows he sleeps like a rock--something for which Jemma has both praised and cursed him--but he hears a cry from the other room and before his wife can wake up to check on Sophie, he is pressing a kiss to her temple. Jemma barely stirs and he knows that she must have been up for the last round of tears. He quietly slips out of bed, only managing to run into the door frame and successfully avoiding stubbing a toe or three.

Sophia is a resilient baby. He and Jemma have known this since they brought her home because she doesn't cry around strangers, or if something startles her. But she wails at the top of her tiny lungs when she's hungry or needs a diaper change, and even though Jemma insists on breastfeeding whenever possible, he shouts her down when she nearly falls facefirst into a culture she was growing in the lab.

When he approaches the crib, his daughter is waving her fists wildly and kicking out, and he thinks the sharp sound of her cry could probably pierce through several layers of thick glass, but he reaches down into the crib and lifts her into the air. She doesn't smell, so it isn't a diaper change. Fitz rests her head against his shoulder, bouncing her gently in his arms. "Ssshhhh. Quiet, little monkey, you'll wake Mummy." He makes his way into the kitchen, rubbing Sophia's back with one hand and humming lightly. "Now, where--a-ha," he whispers, reaching into the fridge for a bottle of formula to put in the microwave.

The baby's cries start to subside and Fitz moves her to cradle her in his arms, tickling her cheek with a finger. She has only been home for a few weeks and already he can't seem to imagine a life without her. He takes the bottle from the microwave and holds it up to her mouth, her tiny hands freezing in the air as her lips purse around the nipple to suck.

He can't help but marvel at how tiny she really is, how her fist doesn't close around his entire finger. It's still too early to tell, but he thinks that she has Jemma's nose and eyes, and his smile and possibly his curly hair. She is a bit of both of them, and that is enough to make him feel like all is right in the world. He half-waltzes around the room as she finishes her meal, this little miracle.

Leopold Fitz is a scientist and his life is dedicated to explaining miracles. His work grounds the theories of others and makes them applicable to real life; Jemma's field is biochemistry, which is far more relatable to genetics and biology and a piece of the scientific world with which he's never concerned himself much, not outside of classes at university and lectures at the Academy. He has read all of the books that his wife left in her pregnancy wake and possibly knows more about how the fetus develops, but it is so much different when he holds his daughter to him.

After he burps Sophia and her eyes start to close again, he slowly makes his way back to the nursery. _She is perfect_ , he thinks as he places her gently into the crib, and the thought echoes in his mind as he returns to the bedroom, exhaustion making him stumble into bed.

He pulls the covers over him and Jemma turns toward him, draping her arm over his stomach. "Did you feed Sophie?" she asks sleepily, resting her cheek against his collarbone, pressing her nose into his neck. Fitz makes a noise of assent. "Thank you, love."

"Go to sleep, Jem," he replies, a smile on his face as he shuts his eyes.

\-----

It's been several hours since she made Fitz leave the lab. He had been swaying at the computer and she spotted his head sagging at least three times, and she knows he had been up nearly all night, against her constant reminders that she would be more than willing to sit up with Sophia. She shakes her head as she folds up her lab coat, a goofy smile plastered on her face.

Their daughter has been keeping them up far more lately, and though she knows it's a part of parenthood, she dearly misses having a good night's rest, or having time to themselves. As she arrives at their residence, she treads quietly inside, letting her bag slip from her shoulder as she heads toward the kitchen.

"Fitz?" she calls, reaching for the thermos filled with hot water and pouring herself a cup. There is a box of teabags still out and she takes one, frowning slightly. He typically remembers to put everything away after years of her nagging. She takes her mug in one hand, careful not to spill it as she meanders through the house. "Fitz? Sophie? Where are you two?"

She checks the front room, though she would have noticed if they had been there upon arrival, and they aren't in the kitchen or the office downstairs. Their house is hardly big, though they don't need much room since they're nearly always at work, but Coulson insisted on giving them a place of their own. She smiles at the memory of the argument that had ended with a hug that she's certain Coulson didn't entirely anticipate, and she heads upstairs, careful not to trample too heavily on the one squeaky step.

She peeks into the nursery, but the crib is empty and her husband isn't sitting in the chair. "Fitz?" she calls once more, lowering her voice to something barely above a whisper, but there isn't a response, so she heads directly into their bedroom.

Fitz is lying on his side on their bed, mouth hanging open as he sleeps, one arm curled around a baby wrapped in a red blanket. The smile that spreads across Jemma's face is so wide that her cheeks start to hurt and she makes a small _oh_ sound, clasping her hand to her chest before she quickly changes out of her work clothing and puts on her pyjamas, sliding into bed beside her family.

She taps a finger to Sophia's nose, smiling at the Captain America onesie and the little curls starting to really grow in. Jemma lifts her head to press a kiss to her daughter's forehead and so she can rest her hand against Fitz's cheek for a moment--he stirs just a bit but doesn't wake, to his credit--and within minutes, she falls asleep, too.

\-----

"You're a funny one, aren't you, monkey?"

Sophie giggles wildly as he pouts and then buzzes his lips together. She reaches for his nose despite the fact that her arms aren't long enough and he grins, swinging her gently from side to side. "I'm glad you think Daddy is hilarious because Mummy doesn't always agree." He knows she doesn't understand him, but there's something to be said about always talking to babies because they'll pick up linguistic cues, and Jemma is in the shower, so he's taking as much alone time as he can get.

He puts her down on the bed and tickles her stomach, which makes her flap her arms and he laughs before puffing out his cheeks and upper lip, his hands tugging at his ears. The baby's laughter dies down and she stares up at him for a moment, and he is suddenly terrified that he is going to make her cry, but he leans down anyway and she presses her hand to his face before beaming up at him, gurgling. "Oh, you scared me, Soph. Look, I'm being a monkey!"

"You are completely going to terrify her if you get any closer," Jemma says from the doorway, and he quickly turns around to see his wife standing in the doorway in her pyjamas, trying to pat her hair dry with an old, tattered t-shirt. She stares at him and he realises that he is still making his monkey face and he can feel his face burning as he drops his hands, but she snorts and starts to laugh. "I cannot believe I married you," she manages through her laughter, walking toward him. His embarrassment fades away as he watches her put the t-shirt down on the bed to pick Sophie up.

He grins, his eyes shifting from his daughter's face to his wife's and he thinks he's the luckiest man in the world. "I'm glad you did," he murmurs, and Jemma turns her face to look up at him, biting her lip as her eyes roam his face.

"What?"

Fitz leans his forehead against hers. "Nothing," he replies, the corner of his mouth turning up before he looks back down at Sophia. "More faces?" he asks, pitching his voice higher as he reaches a hand to tickle her stomach. She squeals and Jemma's eyes go wide, trilling her tongue as she smiles. "See, Mummy can do them, too."

\-----

The monkey bars are exactly where Jemma thinks her daughter might be and as usual, she is correct. Sophie is swinging her way across them and Fitz is standing back, his hands on his hips as he watches her. "Very good, monkey! How on earth did you manage that?"

Sophie shrugs, a big smile on her face. "I just don't look down, Daddy! And I swing like a chimpanzee," she adds as an afterthought, looking pensive for a few moments before she holds her hands up in the air. "Piggyback ride?" Her eyes are wide with hope and Fitz laughs, nodding as he turns his back to her. She wraps her arms around her father's neck, linking her fingers together in front and hops up, Fitz catching her so her legs rest somewhere around his waist.

Jemma laughs, walking toward the pair of them as she wraps her cardigan around her a little tighter. "Careful, sweetheart, don't pull on Daddy's tie!" Sophie nods, shifting her hands so they rest just to one side of his tie. Jemma stops in front of her husband and tilts her head up to brush her lips against his cheek. "I love you," she murmurs.

She pulls back and he is beaming. "I love you, too," he replies, before turning his head in an attempt to look at the little girl on his back. "Am I a plane today, Soph?" Sophie makes a noise of confirmation and suddenly they're off, zipping around the playground. Fitz is yelling about the position of her arms so they can turn and Jemma rolls her eyes--this is a lesson in aerodynamics, if she knows her husband at all, and for a moment she's thankful that there aren't many others around to brave the slightly chilly wind or they might suffer injuries from the man running around like a total idiot. (Fitz nearly trips as she thinks this. She can't help but snort.)

"Be careful, Fitz!" she calls, and he shouts for Sophie to latch onto his shoulders again before straightening and setting her down on a platform. Their little girl presses a sloppy kiss to his forehead and he laughs as she resumes playing. Jemma watches him with adoration as he approaches her, his hands tugging at his jumper to straighten it out. "Our baby is growing up too quickly," she says with a frown, and he wraps his arms around her, kissing her hair.

"She is and it's absolutely alarming," he replies, and she can feel the wistful smile in the sound of his voice. She tilts her head up and leans in to kiss him gently, and when she pulls back, he still has that look on his face that he had the first time they ever kissed, the one that looks so much in awe that everything he is experiencing might just be a dream. "Hi," he murmurs, sounding a little breathless.

"Hi back," she says, grinning and poking him in the chest. "No crying, please." He wrinkles his nose and she laughs, squirming out of his grasp. "Besides, we'll have another one soon." She takes one look at him and starts walking away as quickly as she can manage without running, leaving him standing rooted to the spot, his mouth hanging open.

"JEMMA SIMMONS, COME BACK HERE RIGHT THIS SECOND." She ignores him, instead finding Sophie and playing a game of tic-tac-toe with her until Fitz catches up with her, wrapping his arms around her waist, his breath tickling her neck. "Jemma--Jem, are you pregnant?" he asks, his lips hovering close to her ear, and she finally turns around in his arms to see Fitz staring at her so intensely that she might combust. Words seem to have left her completely and she only nods meekly, chewing on her lower lip. His eyes search her face for a brief moment before he leans in and kisses her soundly. She makes a noise of surprise before wrapping her arms around his shoulders, one hand threading through his hair at the nape of his neck.

"Ew!" a voice from behind them exclaims, and they break apart to see Sophie making a face at them both. Jemma laughs and Fitz blushes slightly, but Sophie's look of digust is quickly replaced by a smile. "It's because you love each other," she states, matter-of-factly, and Jemma nods, leaning into her husband's chest.

"It is, monkey," she replies fondly. "Though this time, it's mostly because you're going to be a big sister."

It takes exactly six and a half seconds of wild blinking before Sophie shrieks. " _I'M GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER?!_ "


End file.
